﻿﻿﻿St. Augustine one wrote that a Christian should be an ALLELUIA from the top of his or her head to the bottom of his or her feet! Any why would he say that? I think because a Christian should "get it". A Christian should realize that these 40 days of Lent, Holy Week and the beautiful celebration of Easter are not just something to do. We are not just going through the actions. We are seriously remembering the fact that after all of the pain and desertion, after all the anger and sense of abandonment, after breathing his last and being closed up in a tomb, JESUS ROSE FROM THE DEAD, NEVER TO DIE AGAIN.If I truly realize that the Risen Jesus is always with me, is guiding me, pulling for me, forgiving me over and over again, should I not be an ALLELUIA from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet? When I recall one of Jesus' promises, that if anyone loved him, he and his Father would come to live within that person, it fills me with joy to know that the Father, Son and Spirit (who Jesus promised he would send to the Church) lives within me. Not only does the church building shake with joy on Holy Saturday evening when the sung Exultet proclaims that "This is the night!", but the temple of my human person, is filled with joy because God lives within! Risen Jesus, help me to hold on to this truth always, but especially during the next 50 days of the Easter Season. Help me to be grateful for your dying and rising, for your LIVING AGAIN in me and for me. No present or future empire or evil power can ever take you away from me, if I but welcome you and keep you as my guest. I ask for this grace to be an ALLELUIA from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, every day of my life.

He came to show us how much God loved us. He did that in parables, teachings, miracles, prayers and compassionate human encounters with those of his earthly time. The mission is completed. There can be no doubt in any person's mind how much he or she is loved by God. I pray for the grace to complete the mission You have given to me. I pray that as my life races onward, that I too may seal all of my efforts and experiences with a simple "It is Finished," expressing my heartfelt intention of giving You and You in others, all I have. That's what reciprocal love is all about.We call this day GOOD FRIDAY because it is the day You loved us to the end. "We adore You, O Christ and we praise You, because by Your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world."

On his way to Jerusalem. On his way to finish what he had come to do. Jesus faced suffering. He embraced the human condition and modeled for us the way to embrace it as well. He was aware of all that awaited him. Yes, he even asked if this "cup" could be taken away. God understands when I do the same thing. Like right now, for instance.I am writing calmly about suffering and the way Jesus showed us how to bear it, how to offer it as a prayer for those we love, how not to waste the moments when suffering comes. Yet, only God knows right now how I will react when the cross comes crashing down upon me in my own life. It is easy to write or to teach or to talk about it. It is harder to walk the walk.Jesus knew what going to Jerusalem meant for him. I sometimes stare future suffering in the face too: the person I would rather not negotiate with, the meeting I would rather not attend the surgery I would rather not have done . . . the loss to death of those who I love. There are many times in my life when I may catch myself going "up to Jerusalem." I pray that when I do catch those moments, I may do so with peace, with security in knowing God's love and presence, and with a desire to use these difficult moments as opportunities for rising to a newer spiritual life.We all walk through some sort of suffering and death before our final death will come. We all rise from these and continue to live our discipleship as best we can. Just as I will meet my final death, this suffering-death-resurrection-pattern will also culminate in the final resurrection promised to me, to all of us by Jesus. To my way of thinking, a person who is "fully alive" is one who walks the walk in, by dying and rising daily in faith and love. That is the Resurrection Way.